The Boy With No Body
by IFiWEREaROBOT
Summary: Well, gee whiz, Ken! Everybody has somebody." "I don't."
1. Memory

**Memory**

* * *

High school came much too soon. It was only yesterday that he could remember signing everyone's middle school year book, or vice versa. He had gone around begging everyone to sign in his yearbook, he wanted something to remember everyone by in case they moved away or died or got abducted by aliens again. He got turned down every time, of course, and just when he thought he had asked every person in school Kenny McCormick came up and snatched the sharpie right out of his hand and signed it right then and there.

_"Try again next year, Butterscotch."_

Leopold Stotch remembers him well, always bundled up safely in his parka, his hood drawn tight to a close. He remembers not his face, because nobody ever got to see his face for very long, but his eyes. Kenny had these little brown eyes

_or were they green? Blue? No, no, they were definitely brown, brown like hazelnuts_

ringed with dark circles from staying up late playing video games, and even if you couldn't see if he was smiling or frowning, or understand a word he said, one look at his eyes and it was like taking an open book test with the cliff notes taped on the inside of the cover. Leopold wonders how he could possibly forget something as

_pretty as Kenny's eye color_

simple as an eye color when he suddenly remembers that nobody has seen Kenny's eyes in a long time. The poor boy finally outgrew his parka after hitting a growth spurt in middle school and had taken to wearing his brother's tattered old hoodie instead. To compensate, Kenny grew his hair out, since he was too poor for a haircut and he didn't trust his dad anywhere near his neck with a pair of scissors, and let it hang in his

_blue green brown_

eyes messily more often than not. There was a momentary pang of loss and then it was gone and he decided to forget about it, because colors were such fickle things anyway and

_did you know dogs couldn't even see in color?_

there was no sense in worrying about it.


	2. Exception

**Exception**

* * *

Kenny had the nicest smiles, even when he wasn't feeling quite so nice. When he was angry, he would grit his teeth and smile real tight, and when he was happy he'd get this foolish, lopsided grin, like he was only half sure.

They had a discussion about it in class, they said that you could tell a real smile from a fake smile by looking at what muscles in the face someone was using but Leopold couldn't remember what they were called or where they were specifically. All he knew was that a real smile made your face crinkle up like a bag of chips, and that's where crow's feet came from, from smiling too much. He hoped he'd have crow's feet when he grew up. His mother didn't have any, but that might be because of her new wrinkle cream that the television promised would take at least ten years off your age. He looked at her sometimes to see if she looked like she did ten years ago when he was

_short stupid happy_

a kid and she does, she hasn't changed a bit. She still gives him these little disappointed looks and sighs a lot, and then touches her face in the mirror to smooth out the wrinkles on her forehead that she got from frowning too much.

A real smile made your eyes light up like Christmas, too. He'd watched enough home videos

_weddings, birthday parties, graduation, Granny coming to visit_

to know that. He didn't bring it up in class, because he wasn't so sure if he had the evidence to back it up and Kyle was absolutely vicious when it came to debating. In the end, it was all just his opinion, but Leopold was sure it applied to everyone. Well, everyone except Kenny.

But you could never be too sure with him.


	3. Heart

**Heart**

* * *

There were a lot of selfish people in the world. All they did was ask and beg and take what they wanted. The world was a ruthless place and Leopold knew it first hand. People lied and cheated and stole, mostly from him, but heck, even he lied on occasion to get out of a tough scrape. They were only little

_white_

lies, but that still meant he lied nonetheless and so did everyone else, which somehow made it

_wrong but right but what did he know?_

tolerable. He didn't know one person who never lied to get what they wanted. Except Kenny, but it wasn't like Kenny wanted much. In fact, Kenny didn't want

_everything nothing love_

anything. Kenny needed it. And nobody ever gave him what he needed. Leopold thought it was a little sad, but what could he do? There was only so much in the world.

And Leopold would always be a selfish little liar at heart.


	4. Patience

**Patience**

* * *

Leopold always considered himself a pretty patient person; he could wait his turn in line and wait for the bell to ring before packing up his things and wait in his room until his parents ungrounded him for the umpteenth time. He could even wait the whole twelve months to open his Christmas presents, unlike some kids who searched for their presents and unwrapped them to peek inside and then rewrapped them and acted like nothing happened. Those were the impatient kids, but not him, he didn't want to

_get grounded_

disappoint his parents, so he just sat tight and waited like a good kid. Or at least he could.

Then Kenny McCormick showed up.

Kenny was like a special present, the kind that was wrapped up in three layers of wrapping paper and hidden on the highest shelf in the back of your parents' closet. Leopold watched him sometimes, waiting to catch a glimpse of his face. He had always been curious to see what the boy looked like, he had known him since they were kids after all and wasn't it a little strange? So he waited. And waited. And waited. It's been close to ten years now.

Kenny never takes off his hood

_never ever ever_

and Leopold doesn't think he can wait forever.

He's getting impatient.


End file.
